Police say that Jessica Lynn Howell, a 25-year-old O'Fallon mother, encouraged her boyfriend to rape her infant daughter -- prompting a brutal sexual assault that resulted in her four-month-old baby's death last year.

The woman was allegedly aware that her boyfriend, Jordan Lafayette Prince, 25, intended to assault her daughter, Ashlynn Lilith Peters, who did not survive the attack in December. Officials say they have text messages between the two that clearly demonstrate her responsibility in her child's death.

"These text messages [from the mother] encouraged the killer to engage in sexual conduct with the child," St. Charles County Prosecutor Tim Lohmar tells Daily RFT. "We're very confident that she was fully aware of the gravity of what it was she was suggesting."

The formal complaint filed Monday -- on view below, with graphic detail about the assault -- says that months prior to her baby's death, Howell and Prince sent implicating texts. The charges reference "communications with Prince suggesting a willingness to allow him to engage in sexual activity with Ashlynn."

Howell, already facing a child-endangerment charge, is now facing second-degree murder and child abuse charges. Her boyfriend was charged in December with second-degree murder and he reportedly told cops at the time that he had become frustrated with the baby because she wouldn't stop crying. In response, he allegedly choked the Ashlynn to death.

Jordan Prince.

The subsequent investigation and autopsy, however, revealed that the situation was much worse. The four-month-old had not only been strangled to death, but had also suffered from internal bleeding injuries caused by sodomy. That horrible discovery led cops to add an additional sexual-assault charge against Prince.

As if the case could not get any more gruesome and unbelievable, this week, the new charges against the mother imply that she was very much complicit in her daughter's rape.

"Anytime you've got a child victim, it's a terribly tragic situation," Lohmar tells us. "What makes this more disturbing is that the one person who should be there to care for the child, her mother, was indirectly responsible for her death."

The complaint says that the baby was killed by asphyxiation and that she suffered hemorrhages to her face, neck, chest and back and blunt force trauma to her head, causing a laceration to her ear and a hemorrhage near her skull. Further, the injuries from the sexual assault were severe enough that they would have caused her death even if she had not been strangled, the charges say.

Ashlynn would have turned one next month.

It's unclear what exactly Howell may have admitted to cops at this point, but Lohmar says, "Through the course of the investigation, which included interviews with her, we're very confident in our charges."

Howell also allegedly knew that Prince had previously been found guilty of committing a sex offense against a minor.

"She still allowed the child to be in his presence and under his care," Lohmar says.

Howell is being held on a $1 million cash-only bond and will eventually face trial later this year or in early 2014.

A Facebook page that seems to be some sort of memorial fund for the baby girl includes a comment from what appears to be Jessica Howell's account back in January:

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Do you think its possible she thought she was just joking with this guy using black humor when she sent the text messages? How many messages were there and what did they actually say? I just found it hard to believe that she would have encouraged him to do this. To do so meant that she would have enjoyed the torture of her daughter, and dealing with the aftermath of that torture as the daughters caregiver for years to come. She was not even that interested in this Jordan Prince guy, as only six weeks later after her daughters death, she had already broken up with him and was at that point "in love" with some other guy she met. (I read this on her facebook page). I'd like to know the full story, hopefully it will come out in Jordan Prince's trial.

i didnt even read what everyone had commented about until i had commented was glad to see that everyone one pretty much felt as i do about this because i found it pretty disturbing as u all did and please forgive me on what i wrote but im sure you all would agree. i just dont understand how on earth anyone could think of such a horrible thing muchless do it. im just sick thats all and everything i read now days gets worse

omg im f... sick these two things are such a disgrace to human beings how could anyone especially a mother even think of such a hidous act upon someone else muchless their own child and then jordon how could he carry out such an act upon an innocent little baby i can not even say how i feel about these two monsters not even do animals kill their owe prey in such a cruel ungodly manor this has to be the most horrible unheard sickening and discusing thing i have ever read in my entire life.these two need to be locked in a room next to each other so they can hear each other scream and cry for mercy while they are repeatedly beat raped and torched to the near brink of death then let them recuperate slightly then repeatedly done again until they day they die and hope they live along pain death im sorry if this sounds horrible but thats how pissed and sick iam from this lord forgive me

I’m so excited I just received my power stripes in the mail and now it’s my time to help people with the pain they are feeling as well as make money from home! It’s my time to stat living live and doing what’s right for people! If this sounds like something you would like to start doing inbox me for more info!

There should be a legal charge for something along the lines of "Being a total waste of organic matter", or "Being a scumbag piece of shit", and it should be applied to these two. The punishment? The people vote.

It isn't about punishing these people, it's about showing everyone else the consequences of absolutely disgusting, appalling, deranged behavior like this.

I knew this girl. Sadly at one point years ago I thought she was pretty cool. I don't know what went wrong but I know we don't need this kind of evil on this earth. Take her out back and put one between her eyes. People like this don't deserve a grave just put her in the fill with the rest of the garbage.